


Solar Flare

by veituriel (skykiss)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra!Keith, Hate Crime, Interspecies Racism, M/M, Now for a Limited Time: Keith has a mom, Original Character Death(s), Parallel Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 13:08:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7803115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skykiss/pseuds/veituriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're different, Keith. People fear what they don't understand, and they often try to fight what they fear."</p><p>Years after the Alteans made First Contact with Earth, the Galra Empire led by Zarkon begins its conquest of the known universe, drawing spite to their entire race-including the innocent.</p><p>Decades later, Keith Kogane enters his freshman year at the Galaxy Garrison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solar Flare

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first posted work to any fanfiction site.. ever. I was actually kind of dreading posting the prologue, but I love Shiro and Keith too much. Please feel free to leave constructive criticism!

“Mama, can we have psatosh for dinner?”

Little Keith grasped his mother’s hand tightly as she browsed the aisles of their local supermarket. It was late- probably around nine- and the Lyran at the register was tapping their nails at irregular intervals, glancing out the windows at the darkened sky and dimly-lit streets. The smile Keith’s mother gave him was weak with sadness.

“Maybe next time, darling.”

Keith bowed his head to hide the frown on his face, but his mother noticed anyway. Her smile faltered and faded, and she turned away to pick up some small cans from a shelf nearby. It was some kind of nasty Earth vegetable that kept well for a long time, but Keith would eat it. They both would, even though Keith longed for the day when he could try all of the delicious things his mother talked about when she told stories of her home-world.

Soon enough they stood at the register, basket lined with the cheapest necessities they could find. It took a moment to ring everything, but when the cashier read the total to Keith’s mother she seemed… relieved, somehow, even though the tense line of her shoulders didn’t ease. She paid exact change just as someone shuffled into the line to buy a single candy bar, and then they took their bags and left.

The walk home would be quiet, only the sounds of far-off sirens and stray animals to interrupt the wind blowing through the alleyways. Keith pointed out the constellations he could see to his mother as they walked, naming them and telling her things he had learned at the library a few miles from their apartment. She laughed when he told her about the time when Pluto wasn’t considered a planet, and then she grinned and showed him the small carton of strawberries she’d secretly bought him as a present. He’d have to eat them soon, she said, because they would spoil quickly and her body wasn’t used to the acids in the fruit.

About halfway home, Keith’s mother veered off their usual path and slowed. She kept turning her head over her shoulder.

“Mama, what’s wrong?” Keith asked. He kept his voice low, feeling terribly afraid at the sudden shift in the atmosphere. She didn’t respond, but shoved him aside just as a sound like thunder rang through the alley. It was shallow and awful, like Keith had been smacked over the ears. He covered them with his hands as he lay behind the dumpster where he’d landed, tears welling from his eyes at the pain of being pushed and the sudden throbbing in his ears. He was too disoriented to move. Something hit the ground with a thud and rolled to a stop nearby.

Keith never heard the patter of footsteps fading quickly into the distance, never realized when it was that the safety enforcers arrived- because he had crawled across the ground to his mother’s side, shaken her, begged her to wake up, and covered the torn place in her chest where a gaping hole shouldn’t have been with his too-small hands.

As he was covered with a blanket and taken away, the only thing he could see among the blood and the filth was the red of spilled strawberries.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit of Solar Flare! I'll be posting the first full chapter soon, and editing tags as I go.  
> Thanks for reading! (P.S. Psatosh is just a Galran dish I made up. The planet Lyra is based on the Lyra from one of the earlier Voltron series.)


End file.
